The Refugio County Press has a new look online — and a new name to go with it.

MySouTex.com launches full force today encompassing not only the County Press but also that of the Beeville Bee-Picayune and The Progress covering Live Oak and McMullen counties.

It seemed like a natural transition as all three papers are printed by Beeville Publishing Company. Co-Publisher Jeff Latcham, said, “We wanted to create a web site that provides all of the communities we serve an interactive place for community news and events.”

Chip Latcham, co-publisher, said, “It is definitely more user friendly, more interactive and has many more interesting features, including videos, calendar and feedback.

“We believe mySouTex.com will benefit the community in that it provides more immediate, comprehensive coverage across our region (Refugio, Bee, Live Oak and McMullen counties) and will offer our readers and advertisers a much better opportunity to connect with this vital part of South Texas.”

Those worried that these papers are going away in their printed form have nothing to be concerned with. Each will still be sold and delivered as usual.

Likewise, the original web sites will remain up and functioning for a little while longer.

“We chose to name it mySouTex.com because we wanted it to belong to the users and have tried to design it that way. We encourage folks to explore it with the idea of how they can make it work for them,” said Jeff Latcham.

The online combination is an effort to make finding and reading news in the digital era more convenient.

But this site is about more than just news. It is about you, the reader.

In addition to updates daily on breaking news, the site also allows anyone to comment on stories, post upcoming events through our calendar or write a blog.

We are inviting all aspiring writers to start their blogs about whatever topic is of interest.

There is no limit.

We do ask that you keep it clean. If you don’t, the public has the ability to report violations, such as profanity, obscenity or libelous statements to the editors here.

You, our readers, will be the moderators. This is your online community. We are just providing the space.

““We’re not done yet either. This has so many functional options to benefit the community, it’s something of a work in progress,” Jeff Latcham said.

It is best to call this a beta site as there are still a few bugs to work out. So if you find something that could use improvement, please let us know and we will do our best to fix the problem.